SANGHAMITHRA RURAL FINANCIAL SERVICES,BENGALURU V. ACIT, (EXEMPTIONS), BENGALURU

ITA 332/BANG/2025

AI Insights

The case involves M/s. Sanghamithra Rural Financial Services, a company registered under section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013, and also under section 12A of the Income Tax Act. The assessee filed a return declaring nil income for the assessment year 2014-15, claiming exemption under section 11 of the Income Tax Act. However, the Assessing Officer (AO) assessed the total income at Rs. 2,87,26,013. The assessee's appeal to the CIT(A) was dismissed due to non-response to hearing notices, which were incorrectly sent to an old email address. The Tribunal found that the notices were not properly communicated to the assessee and granted an opportunity for the assessee to present their case before the CIT(A).

• Counselvise Citation: [2025] 140 COUNSELVISE.COM (IT) 711323 (ITAT-BANGALORE)
• Appeal Type: Income Tax Appeal
• Pronouncement Date: 25-07-2025
• Appeal Filed By: Assessee
• Order Result: Allowed
• Assessment Year: 2014-2015
• Laws Referred To: Companies Act, 2013, Income Tax Act
• Result in Favour of: Assessee
• Court: TRIBUNAL
• Department Lawyers: MURALI MOHAN
• Assessee Lawyers: MADHUSUDHAN
• Section: 143(3); 11; 12A

Judgement Text

"IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL ‘B’ BENCH : BANGALORE BEFORE SHRI PRASHANT MAHARISHI, VICE – PRESIDENT AND SHRI SOUNDARARAJAN K., JUDICIAL MEMBER ITA No. 332/Bang/2025 Assessment Year : 2014-15 M/s. Sanghamithra Rural Financial Services, # 612, 1C Main Road, Domlur Layout, Bengaluru – 560 071. PAN: AAECS0038H Vs. The Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions), Circle – 1, Bengaluru. APPELLANT RESPONDENT Assessee by : Shri Madhusudhan, Advocate Revenue by : Shri Murali Mohan, CIT-DR Date of Hearing : 08-07-2025 Date of Pronouncement : 25-07-2025 ORDER PER SOUNDARARAJAN K., JUDICIAL MEMBER This is an appeal filed by the assessee challenging the order of the NFAC, Delhi dated 06/02/2025 in respect of the A.Y. 2014-15. 2. The brief facts of the case are that the assessee is a company registered u/s. 8 of the Companies Act, 2013 and also obtained registration u/s. 12A of the Act. During the year, the appellant filed their return of income and declared a Nil income after claiming the exemption u/s. 11 of the Act. The case of the assessee was selected for scrutiny and after considering the explanations offered by the assessee, the AO made the Printed from counselvise.com Page 2 of 3 ITA No. 332/Bang/2025 assessment u/s. 143(3) of the Act in which the total income was assessed at Rs. 2,87,26,013/-. As against the said order, the assessee filed an appeal before the Ld.CIT(A) and contended that the assessment is bad in law. The Ld.CIT(A) had dismissed the appeal on the ground that the assessee had not responded to the various hearing notices sent through the registered email ID. As against the said order, the present appeal has been filed by the assessee. 3. At the time of hearing, the Ld.AR submitted that the assessee is having a good case on merits and also submitted that the hearing notices sent by the Ld.CIT(A) was not received by the assessee and filed a small paper book and enclosed the screenshot of the profile of the assessee as well the copy of the notices sent by the Ld.CIT(A) and submitted that the email ID of the assessee is [e-mail] whereas the notices were sent to the email ID [e-mail]. Therefore the Ld.AR submitted that the assessee could not be able to appear before the Ld.CIT(A) and prayed an opportunity to appear before the Ld.CIT(A). 4. The Ld.DR relied on the orders of the lower authorities and prayed to dismiss the appeal. 5. We have perused the screenshot of the profile of the assessee in which it was clearly mentioned the email ID as [e-mail]. But in the hearing notices issued by the Ld.CIT(A), the email ID has been mentioned as [e-mail] and the copy was also marked to [e-mail]. From the said screenshot and the copy of the notices sent, we are of the view that the Ld.CIT(A) had not communicated the hearing notices to the assessee and therefore the assessee had sufficient reasons for not appearing before him. Since the Ld.CIT(A) had not adjudicated the issue on merits, in the interest of justice, we are granting an opportunity to the assessee to appear before the Ld.CIT(A). We also direct the Ld.CIT(A) to send the hearing notices to the email ID of the assessee i.e. Printed from counselvise.com Page 3 of 3 ITA No. 332/Bang/2025 [e-mail] and thereafter decide the appeal on merits after hearing the assessee. 6. In the result, the appeal filed by the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes. Order pronounced in the open court on 25th July, 2025. Sd/- Sd/- (PRASHANT MAHARISHI) (SOUNDARARAJAN K.) Vice – President Judicial Member Bangalore, Dated, the 25th July, 2025. /MS / Copy to: 1. Appellant 2. Respondent 3. CIT 4. DR, ITAT, Bangalore 5. Guard file 6. CIT(A) By order Assistant Registrar, ITAT, Bangalore Printed from counselvise.com "